Life is a game, don’t be afraid to play it!

Each and every one of us has played at least one game in his/hers life. Well heck, most of us are still doing so. How many can stand up and say “I never use my smartphone for playing games“? My bet is that almost none. The question everyone in marketing should ask is:

What do games have that keep us engaged with them and how can we apply it to our business?

When playing a game, we may be attracted by the graphical design of a game or a plot, but each time we continue playing because we want to win.

Social media platforms made the “gamification” process so easy. They even made classical games changed their approach. Each one gives you the possibility to exchange game goods or compete with your friends, share your results with the world and so on. So why shouldn’t this strategy be useful for an online marketing campaign?

If you never heard the term “gamification” you might ask yourself “Ok, but how can a match-3 game have anything to do with my handmade business?” It is actually really simple.

Imagine you start an online marketing campaign “Match-3 for a pair of earrings”. You give the possibility to each customer to bring three more friends to buy from your shop in exchange for a free pair of earrings. But what happens in a Match-3 game when you match five pieces? You get a booster! You’ve already given that customer a pair of earring, so why not offer a 10% discount on the next purchase? This way she will come back to buy something new and start the game all over again. Think about her friends. At least one of those five will play the game as well. You now have at least ten new customers, because one girl decided to buy from your website. Awesome right?

How can I gamify my business?

The first thing you need to understand about gamification is that you don’t need to transform every part of your business in a game strategy and it’s not applicable for everyone.

You need set up a goal and some rules. This is what makes a game what it is. Players follow the rules, and they do it voluntarily for the sake of winning the goal.

You have to find what would motivate your potential customers, find out what is boring in your approach and start using game elements to make them you